Egg-Tech Prize

About the Egg-Tech Prize

Several billion female layer chicks, those that become hens, are hatched each year to supply the world’s eggs. A similar number of male chicks are also produced but never make it to market. The male chicks cannot lay eggs and their poor growth and meat quality make them unsuitable for consumption. As there is no need for male chicks, they are culled once hatched. Male chick culling is a major animal welfare challenge and creates lost-opportunity costs for farmers. 

As there is no way to determine the sex of an egg before it hatches, we launched this research initiative with Open Philanthropy to develop technology that determines an egg’s sex before it hatches.

If egg hatcheries had technology that determined the egg’s sex on the day it is laid, over 6 billion male eggs could be used for food, animal feed or vaccine production. Additionally, eggs are incubated for 21 days before they hatch. This technology could vastly reduce the cost and carbon footprint of incubating layer eggs, while freeing up space for the incubation of female eggs – increasing the efficiency of production. Estimates suggest that preventing male chick culling would save the egg industry approximately $500 million from wasted eggs and labor.